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The Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved Monday, June 22, a 25-cent property tax hike to partially finance construction of a new, $99 million Collierville High School.

The approval on third reading came two weeks after the board tentatively approved a 20-cent property tax hike. At the time, they believed local sales tax revenue dedicated to the suburban school district could get the project the rest of the way to financing or at least close to the $99 million amount at a rate of $6 million in debt a year for 20 years.

There is the effort to sell Collierville residents on the specific plan for a $99 million comprehensive high school for 3,000 students. And then there is the effort to avoid a referendum on the $99 million bond issue that could follow approval of a property tax hike for the new school construction.

The Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted Monday, June 8, to raise the city’s property tax rate by 20 cents to $1.73 in the new fiscal year to finance construction of a comprehensive high school.

A proposed comprehensive new high school for the Collierville School system moves to the Collierville Mayor and Board of Aldermen Monday, June 8, three days after the Collierville Schools board recommended a $99 million project to build the school on land south of Shelby Drive and east of Sycamore Road.

The Collierville Schools system is about to start the process of finding a site for a new high school and determining how much it would cost.

The Collierville school board voted unanimously Tuesday, April 8, to have the school system’s staff begin developing a request for the qualifications of an architect and planners to come up with plans for the school and select a site.

Shelby County Commission Chairman Mike Ritz said Tuesday, July 23, the commission is unlikely to increase funding to the countywide school system in the near future.

Ritz spoke at the Memphis Rotary Club the day after the commission approved a $4.38 county property tax rate that includes $20 million in new funding for the schools – the first increase in county funding to public education since 2005.

While Shelby County and city of Memphis government leaders have grappled with the loss of property value and its impact on the property tax rates for both governments, suburban leaders have a different reality.

Voter turnout in the most popular election cycle among Shelby County voters was 61.9 percent, about the same percentage as four years ago. But the 371,256 voters is fewer than 2008 when more than 400,000 Shelby County voters cast ballots. The percentage is about the same because there are fewer registered voters in Shelby County than there were four years ago after a purge by election officials.

Early vote totals from Shelby County were released just before 10 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 6, after the vote count was delayed in part by long lines of voters waiting to vote at the 7 p.m. closing of polls.

The last election of 2012 will be one where questions continue to command as much attention if not more than candidates.

The polls are open Tuesday, Nov. 6, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Voters come to the polls in this election to vote in the presidential general election. That is what drives the only election cycle in which more than half of the county’s registered voters consistently show up.

With the Aug. 2 referendums behind them, most of the suburban leaders in Shelby County are moving toward a rapid transition to establishing school districts. And it has gone largely unnoticed.

There are plenty of distractions. The transition to the merger of the Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools has cast a long shadow. There is also the ongoing legal battle in Memphis federal court where a possible outcome includes voiding the results of the suburban referendums and at least delaying the start date of the municipal schools.

The day after U.S. District Court Judge Hardy Mays ruled the suburban municipal schools referendums will go ahead as planned, most of the 20 attorneys in his courtroom for the ruling were back before him.

Memphis Federal Court Judge Hardy Mays ruled Thursday, July 12, the set of referendums on forming suburban municipal school districts will go ahead as scheduled starting with the early voting period that opens Friday, July 13.

The group drawing up the blueprint for a consolidated countywide public school system will plan for a school system that covers the entire county including the suburban towns and cities.

That’s what the chairwoman of the schools consolidation transition planning commission told all six suburban mayors Thursday, Feb. 16, as the planning commission talked with the mayors about their plans to create municipal school districts.

It keeps coming back to the issue of turf between the city of Memphis and the six suburban municipalities.

The complex questions of who paid for what, how much they paid and who gets it predates the ongoing move to schools consolidation by years. And it has everything to do with whether Shelby County has one or multiple public school systems at the start of the 2013-2014 school year.

If there are suburban school systems in Shelby County and they want to start classes in August 2013, when Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools merge, it will be a fast track process – just like the merger the suburbs are reacting to.

The week after the schools consolidation transition planning commission began holding public hearings, the leaders of Shelby County’s six suburban municipalities are about to get a long-awaited report from consultants they hired last year to explore forming a separate school system to avoid schools consolidation.

Hosted by the schools consolidation transition planning commission, the forum featured lots of opposition to the coming schools consolidation and concerns about student achievement and the movement of students and teachers among schools.

The Memphis Minority Business Council wrapped up its fourth annual Economic Development Fair at the Memphis Cook Convention Center with a roundtable featuring the mayors of Memphis, Shelby County, Germantown, Bartlett and Collierville discussing the role of minorities and women in local economic development.

The Memphis Minority Business Council is prepping for its fourth annual Economic Development Fair, focusing on diversity, inclusion and supporting the growth of minority and women-owned businesses to serve the needs of major corporations.

The Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen will hold a public hearing Thursday for comments concerning the feasibility of constructing a new Collierville Middle School facility at Suggs Park in Collierville.

The town of Collierville has met with Shelby County Schools to discuss the potential relocation of Collierville Middle School with hopes of not only relocating the city’s lone university campus to downtown but also revitalizing the local economy.

The Metro Charter Commission now has a lot of work for its drafting committee, as the group’s task forces continue to report at the body’s weekly meetings.

Still to come are the recommendations about how the services will be divided into urban and general services districts, each with their own tax rates. Those recommendations will be critical to the proposed consolidation charter.

“We’re not there yet,” commission chairwoman Julie Ellis told Collierville Mayor Stan Joyner last week as Joyner looked for some indication. “These are all of great concern to all of us.”

An urban services district would be funded by a property tax rate for people who live in Memphis.

A general services district would be funded by a property tax rate for the entire county, including Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland and Millington.

Joyner is among those most concerned about where the money will come from to pay for those services.

“Two-percent of our population uses any service that is offered by the health department – 2 percent,” Joyner said as charter commissioners brought up county services used by Collierville residents. “(Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division) – but we pay handsomely for that.”

Afterward, Joyner questioned how to prevent a metro council from taxing Collierville residents beyond what they actually use.

“They can do it now, though,” argued Charter commissioner Chris Patterson, who said Collierville residents now pay for more than the services they use from county government. “It’s the same animal.”

Joyner and other suburban leaders argue they should be taxed depending on how much their residents use facilities like The Regional Medical Center at Memphis and the Memphis and Shelby County Health Department.

Consolidation proponents, however, argue The MED and the health department are countywide services that should be funded by all county taxpayers because the services are available to all county residents.

Meanwhile, the commission has tentatively approved seven recommendations from a task force on central support services.

The recommendations would establish departments within a metro government for building security, fleet management, printing and local government property maintenance.

All recommendations go to a drafting committee that will craft charter language and then take the written provisions back to the charter commission for votes on the language as well as the general idea.

Charter Commissioner Damon Griffin, who headed the support services task force, said the departments would not be full-fledged city divisions with directors appointed by the metro mayor and a tier of deputy directors. Each might have two or three employees and then outsource some work.

The task force recommendations approved by the Charter Commission also call for:

A chief information officer, appointed by the metro mayor, to oversee all IT operations.

A metro public information office to be part of the executive powers of the metro mayor. The office would serve as the spokesman for all parts of a consolidated local government and not just individual offices or departments.

Consolidated purchasing services as part of the department of finance and administration.

The charter proposal is due to be completed by mid-August with a vote on the November ballot.

Talk Shoppe will present “What Sales Professionals Need to Know About Facebook” today from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the Better Business Bureau of the Mid-South, 3693 Tyndale Drive. For more information, call 482-0354.

The Memphis Rotary Club will meet today at noon at the University Club of Memphis, 1346 Central Ave. Sister Maureen Griner, co-director of Dorothy Day House, will speak on the topic “Understanding Poverty.” Cost is $18. To register, e-mail Taylor Hughes at taylor@memphisrotary.org.

The Shelby County Assessor of Property is sending out new appraised values today to owners of about 80,000 parcels of land in Downtown, Midtown and East Memphis.

And like many of the owners of the roughly 196,000 properties that already have been sent their new values as part of the 2009 countywide reappraisal of property, some property owners in the city – especially in East Memphis – can expect to see increases in value.

Making Shelby County government the single source of funding for the city and county public school systems could mean a 53-cent increase in the county property tax rate over several fiscal years. It would also reduce the city property tax rate by 82 cents.

Two days after the Nov. 4 elections, the final unofficial totals were finally posted by the Shelby County Election Commission. The long vote count involved absentee ballots whose count was delayed because of problems with an optical scanning machine.

The count shows over 400,000 Shelby County voters participated -- a record setting turnout for Shelby County in the most popular election cycle historically with local voters. However, it amounted to a 62 percent voter turnout for Shelby County.

These are the unofficial election results in selected races including the ten charter amendment referenda.

Two days after the Nov. 4 elections, the final unofficial totals were finally posted by the Shelby County Election Commission this evening. The long vote count involved absentee ballots whose count was delayed because of problems with an optical scanning machine.

The count shows over 400,000 Shelby County voters participated -- a record setting turnout for Shelby County in the most popular election cycle historically with local voters. However, it amounted to a 62 percent voter turnout for Shelby County.

These are the unofficial election results in selected races including the ten charter amendment referenda.

Ken Newberry was appointed senior vice president at Memphis Area Teachers Credit Union. He earned a bachelors degree from Christian Brothers University. Prior to joining MATCU, he worked at Union Planters Bank. Stan Cardwel...